Category Archives: Archery

Perfect Form

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Like dance, archery is a sport of form. It is repeating a single complex motion that perfectly aligns the archer, arrow, and target to achieve perfection.

Brady Ellison is arguably one of the greatest archers today. Here he is competing in the Olympic trails during the Gator Cup in 2023. He would go to the Paris Olympics, winning the individual silver medal in archery. The difference between silver and gold, won by South Korea’s Kim Woojin, was 5mm and one arrow. That arrow was shot at a distance of 70m.

Single String Archery Club Bootcamp, 2023, Part 1

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This April, Naomi and I went to the Single String Archery Club Bootcamp. The bootcamp is two days of archery instruction and practice. The goals of the program is to help archers develop and to raise money to support competitive archers representing the United States at international competitions, such as the World Archery Field Championships and World Archery 3-D Championships.

Many of the instructors have represented the US at international competitions, like Fawn Girard on the right of the image. Fawn is a well-known and decorated barebow archer that competes in indoor and outdoor target archery, field archery, and 3-D archery at home and abroad. She is also a founding member of the Single String Archery Club. Click on the image for a larger view.

Indoor Nationals 2023

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Naomi and I competed in the 54th USA Archery Indoor Nationals. Nearly five hundred archers competed at our location in Virginia and many more in other states around the country.

This is an image of my bail on the second day of the tournament. I was shooting with under 15 compound archers. This is during scoring—after every three arrows, we approach the target to score the results. Over two days, we shot 120 arrows.

Click on the image for a larger view.

Lancaster Classic 2023, Part 6

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Naomi and I had front row seats for the Lancaster Classic barebow finals. The Lancaster Classic barebow final videos on YouTube are extremely popular with the barebow community. The live experience is very different—the energy in the room from the crowd is infectious. Archers have commented on how stressful shooting is on the elevated platforms with hot lights, moving cameras, changing video monitors, and energetic crowds. This image is from the start of the women’s barebow finals with Fawn Girard and Kristine Pruccoli. The 18 meters or 60 feet to the 40 cm targets seem much further under these lights.

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Lancaster Classic 2023, Part 5

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Between the elimination rounds on Saturday morning and the finals that night, archers have a long wait. The barebow archers John Demmer III of the US, Micheal Fisher of Australia, and Kristina Pruccoli of the US and San Marino practice for the upcoming matches. Lancaster follows the World Archery rules for indoor. Archers shoot a 40 cm diameter target at 18 meters. The gold, the 9 and 10 rings, is 8 cm in diameter. In barebow archery, there are no sights; archers use the tip of the arrow to aim and position on the sting they grip to change distance. Click on the image for a larger view.

Lancaster Classic 2023, Part 4

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The best archers from around the world come to the Lancaster Classic. I am not sure why this compound bow is on the garbage can, but hopefully it is not being discard out of frustration with the sport. It is not difficult to shoot a bow, but it is incredibly difficult to shoot it at the levels seen in Lancaster. Click on the image for a larger view.